Storage Vendors Project Higher Sales, Earnings
EMC surprised Wall Street by reporting stronger-than-expected preliminary results for fourth-quarter 2002. The company expects revenue for the quarter to top $1.47 billion, with earnings of 1 cent to 2 cents per share, excluding a previously announced restructuring charge. Analysts had expected EMC to break even for the quarter.
EMC President and CEO Joe Tucci said in a statement that customer spending beat expectations and sales of the vendor's new CX family of Clariion arrays were strong.
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EMC's Joe Tucci says sales of the new Clariion CX arrays were strong.
Fibre Channel switch vendor McData revised its fourth-quarter 2002 revenue projection to between $104 million and $106 million, higher than its earlier estimate of $84 million to $86 million. Fourth-quarter 2001 sales were $93.5 million. The vendor also expects fourth-quarter 2002 pro forma earnings per share of 6 cents to 8 cents, exceeding its earlier guidance of break-even to 1 cent per share and Wall Street estimates of about 2 cents per share. Fourth-quarter 2001 earnings were 3 cents per share.
At StorageTek, executives said the company expects fourth-quarter 2002 pro forma earnings to top 45 cents per share, exceeding Wall Street estimates of 36 cents per share. Earnings in the same period a year ago were 36 cents per share.
Dot Hill Systems narrowed its fourth-quarter 2002 revenue guidance to between $15.5 million and $16.5 million, compared with an earlier estimate of $10 million to $20 million, and projected full-year sales of $46 million to $47 million. In 2001, fourth-quarter revenue was $10.5 million, and full-year sales totaled $56.3 million. Company executives also projected full-year 2003 revenue of $153 million and earnings per share of 17 cents.
Jeff Bawol, vice president and general manager of distributor Avnet Hall-Mark's Enterprise Software and Storage arm, said the storage arena has seen substantial growth of late. "The exciting part is the uptick we saw extended across storage software, hardware and services, and across all of our suppliers," he said.
SCOTT CAMPBELL contributed to this story.